A very successful mixer for fluent and non-fluent material is disclosed in previously issued patents of which I am a coinventor or sole inventor, U.S. Pat. No. 4,506,990, Mar. 26, 1985; U.S. Pat. No. 4,597,672, July 1, 1986 and U.S. Pat. No. 4,756,626, July 12, 1988. The mixers of these patents include a rotor in a main mixing chamber next to vertically stacked augers in an auxiliary side chamber. The material is moved from one end of the auxiliary chamber to the other in opposite directions and is continuously cycled from the main chamber into the auxiliary chamber. The mixing action is more extensively described in these patents.
The mixer of these patents will mix fluent material with non fluent hay material which is more difficult to mix as it is necessary that the hay be left in the mixer for extended periods of time until it has been sufficiently chopped or shredded. It is often desirable to put hay bales of varying sizes into the mixer for mixing with the fluent materials. What is needed is a faster, more effective way of chopping or processing the baled hay for mixing with the fluent materials.